March, 2005

India won a 10-year-long battle at the European Patent Office against the grant of patent on use of neem as a fungicide, citing it as a traditional knowledge available with Indian farmers and the scientific community since time immemorial.

The European Patent Office had originally granted the patent to the United States Department of Agriculture and multinational W.R. Grace in 1995, which was later revoked in 2000 after India appealed against the patent. W.R. Grace however went in for an appeal against the revocation. In response, India led by environmentalist Vandana Shiva presented further evidence to support that use of neem in varied forms is part of traditional Indian knowledge and not a novel product (Vandana Shiva was also part of India's successful bid to protect basmati, a traditional long-grained aromatic rice variety grown only in India and Pakistan, from being patented in the US). In addition, the documented evidence presented by India included research done by two scientists prior to 1995 on use of neem, known for its medicinal properties, for making several products like fungicide.

This is seen as a major victory for India as the award of patent could have been particularly damaging since the US company had tried to enlarge the scope to include all neem end products.